About the High School Huddle

Welcome to the Citizen-Times' constantly-updated blog for Western North Carolina high school sports. Features include breaking news, scores and stats, college recruiting updates and live blogs from some of the marquee games in WNC. Readers are encouraged to comment on posts, but personal attacks on current athletes, coaches and their families will not be tolerated and are subject to edit or removal at the moderator's discretion.

Nominations are now being accepted for the Citizen-Times/Western North Carolina Athlete of the Week awards.

To nominate an athlete, either leave a comment on this blog post or vote anonymously by sending an e-mail to apearson@citizen-times.com. Nominations will be accepted through Sunday with the winners being announced Monday here on the HS Huddle blog.

West Henderson senior outfielder Josh Carter has committed to play college baseball for Wake Tech.

Carter currently leads the Falcons (11-1, 6-0) in batting average (.486), RBIs (22), hits (18), doubles (eight) and home runs (three). West Henderson remained unbeaten in the Western North Carolina Athletic Conference with Friday’s 5-4 home win over Franklin.

Monday night should be every bit as epic as the Reynolds and Roberson soccer teams imagined.

That’s because the Rockets (10-1-2, 4-0-1) and Rams (10-0-1, 4-0-0) have both insured that neither will have a loss in the Mountain Athletic Conference when they take the field at 7 p.m. in Skyland.

Goalkeeper Hope Dickerson and a Roberson defense led by Emily McCord posted their fifth consecutive shutout Friday with a 4-0 win over Enka.

Dickerson only had to make four saves as the Rams outshot the Sugar Jets, 38-8. Four different Roberson players scored in a game between last year’s MAC 3-A and 4-A champions – Kathryn Black, Maddie Brock, Mercedes Ducker and Amanda Pritchard. Brock, Ducker, Pritchard and Anabelle Motley had assists.

Reynolds scored all its goals in the second half of a 3-0 shutout at North Buncombe.

Megan McCallister started things off with a goal in the 48th minute, followed by Breona Tate (55:00) and Zoe Lewis (72:00). Nina Stapleton, Makayla Ballenger and Nicole Bradbury dished out assists.

The Rockets outshot the Black Hawks, 17-3, and keeper Dallas Warren made three saves.

The North Buncombe junior mowed down almost everything in sight Friday as the Black Hawks eased past homestanding Erwin, 11-1.

Destino (6-0) finished with 10 strikeouts in five innings. He allowed just one earned run, two hits and one walk. The South Carolina recruit now has 60 strikeouts for the season.

At the plate, John Rector was 2-for-2 with a home run and RBI. Tyler Rogers was 2-2 and Tanner Smith was 2-3 with a double and five RBIs for North Buncombe (13-2, 6-0) which is the only team in the Mountain Athletic Conference without a MAC loss.

Erskine (S.C.) recruit Joe Metts ruined Destino’s shutout bid with a first-inning home run. Metts leads Western North Carolina with six homers after Friday.

Reynolds junior Dustin Owenby finally gave up an earned run Friday night.

But one was all.

The UNC Asheville recruit threw another gem and the Rockets knocked around one of the top starting pitchers in the Mountain Athletic Conference with an 11-1 home win over McDowell.

Owenby scattered one earned run and five hits in five innings of work to improve to 4-0 on the season. He struck out seven Titans and walked one. Owenby came into Friday with a 0.00 earned-run average.

The Rockets scored eight of their runs in Friday’s fifth inning.

Cory Watts had two doubles during that rally and finished with two RBIs.

Trevor Stockhausen was 3-3 with two RBIs and Cody Cauble was 1-3 with a double and two RBIs. Reynolds (11-2, 5-1) continues to sit in first place in the Mountain Athletic Conference’s 4-A division and now just two wins away from matching its total from all of last season (13).

Landon Whitson drove in the only run for McDowell (8-5, 2-4) on Friday. Titans ace Coleman Arrowood gave up seven earned runs before departing the game after 4.2 innings on the mound.

The 6-foot-4 right-hander throws a fastball that consistently hovers in the low-90 mph range, but can also mix things up with a changeup, curveball or slider.

Clark has signed to play college baseball in the ACC for Duke.

If the young Lions (4-5, 2-1) can just back up all that promise with some run support, they could be very formidable.

Clark’s record is 1-3 entering Saturday’s Carolinas Athletic Association home game against Christ School even though his ERA is 1.17. Clark is also averaging close to two strikeouts per innings pitched.

“It has been a frustrating start for us, but we have the ability to play a lot better,” Clark said.

“We’re just a young team.”

The Lions’ top hitter, Zach Roddy (.435), and Josh Thornburg (who has a team-high four stolen bases) are the team’s only other seniors. Zack Douglas is the lone junior.

Michael Johnson (.353) and Logan Collie (.333) are also batting .300 or better.

Clark’s fastball topped out at 94 mph during a January workout for major-league scouts. A number of talent evaluators have also come to ACA games as well, but Clark said their presence “doesn’t change the way I pitch.”

Clark’s lone win this season came over Swannanoa Valley rival Owen last month.

Third-year coach Billy Shepherd hopes the Lions can get their bats going when they play the Greenies on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Swannanoa.

“Bailey’s record is not a true indication of who he is as a pitcher,” ACA coach Billy Shepherd said.

“He gives us a chance to win every time he pitches. We just need to play better behind him.”

ACA remains the last WNC program, public or private schools, to win a state championship in baseball (2008).